Alcohol Addiction, Alcohol Relapse And Enabling, Why Many Recovering Alcohol Dependent Individuals Return To Drinking, And The Main Reason Why Relapses Happen


It is interesting to mention something that family members who have been adversely affected by the signs of alcoholism of another family member plainly do not know. It appears that by shielding the alcohol addicted individual with untruths and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in reality created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcoholic to carry on and move forward with his or her harmful, devastating existence.

To be sure, instead of helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have mistakenly helped deteriorate the alcohol addicted individual's drinking problems and increase her or his negative "alcohol signs."

Another one of the key chronic alcohol abuse signs or alcoholism signs involves alcohol relapses. Relapses happen when an alcohol addicted person or chronic alcohol abuser has effectively undergone alcohol dependency rehab and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation seems contradictory to logical thinking and seems so implausible that it forces an individual to wonder why anyone who has experienced the wretchedness of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after effective and successful alcohol treatment and in turn after achieving recovery. There are, for sure, numerous conceivable reasons for this.

It should be noted, however that alcohol dependency research that has focused on the enduring outcomes of alcohol dependency has revealed that long after the alcohol addicted person has halted his or her drinking, critical alterations in the way in which the alcoholic's brain operates are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol dependent person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the alterations that have taken place in the brain is to engage in drinking again.

There are even more reasons why more than a few recovering alcohol dependent persons return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. According to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcoholic needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more effectively with difficult alcohol-related situations that will take place.

Circumstances such as returning to the same alcohol addictive environment or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the time when the alcohol addicted person was drinking irresponsibly; or familiar songs, smells, or activities-all of these situations can bring forth memories that can set off emotional anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent person to engage in excessive drinking once again.

Regrettably, all of these circumstances may not only get in the way of long lasting sobriety for the alcoholic but they can also lead to relapse and therefore negate one's alcohol recovery. In an attempt to "protect" the family, alcohol addicted family members can essentially cause unintended damage by enabling the unhealthy drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent person.

The alcoholism research literature validates the fact that most individuals who effectively complete alcohol counseling experience at least one relapse. Alcoholics and their family members need to know this so that they do not get depressed or beleaguered when a relapse happens.

Happily, taking part in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and training have resulted in more productive, long-term alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency therapeutic results, have helped reduce alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent persons accomplish lasting sobriety.